An 'insane' foster cat with a split personality is to be re-homed after he caused hundreds of pounds of damage and hospitalised his owner.

Mum-of-four Zoe Whittaker was scratched and bitten so badly by aggressive tomcat Bradley, she needed antibiotics and a tetanus injection.

The 41-year-old stay-at-home mum had fostered the pale ginger moggy for cat-loving pal Andy Richards because he feared Bradley loathed him because he was male.

But Zoe, from Burnley, Lancs, was forced to give Bradley back after he not only attacked her but caused irreparable damage to a £380 carpet in her lounge.

Happily, the angry feline - who has an amazing knack for escaping from locked cat carriers and from behind closed doors - is now set to be re-homed on a farm.

Bradley the cat scratched and bite her foster owner until she had to be hospitalised (Image: Mercury Press)

Zoe said: "He is just like Jekyll and Hyde - one moment he will let me stroke him but the next moment he will just go for me with no warning.

"He is like Puss in Boots from the movie Shrek - he looks like this cute and cuddly ginger cat with these big eyes but suddenly he will snap and attack you.

"He can be such a cute cat in other ways but he definitely has a split personality."

Andy, 54, has run charity Friends of the cats in Accrington, Lancs, since 2009 and fosters dozens of cats on a regular basis.

He took in stray Bradley - who is believed about three years old - about three weeks ago after he was discovered with a gaping wound on the back of his neck by a woman who regularly fed him.

But within days Andy was being terrorised by the moggy, who twice escaped from behind a closed bedroom door, bit him and kept him up nightly with incessant yowling.

Andy believed his gender might be the problem so arranged for Bradley to be transferred to foster carer Zoe last Friday - but the moggy escaped from his cat carrier twice while she was driving home on the motorway.

After initially appearing to settle in, Bradley soon revealed his evil side and she was forced to bring him back to Andy on Sunday.

He has now been offered a rural home at a farm in Rochdale, Greater Manchester, where he can roam outside and avoid human contact.

Andy, who has dozens of tattoos commemorating the names of his cherished pets with inkings of their paw prints and cat faces, said: "Bradley is a lunatic cat - he is a complete one off and really does have special talents. He's a right character.

"When I first picked him up I realised straight away he was one of those cats who didn't like being stroked.

"He bit me a couple of times and is an amazing escapologist - I twice put him in a bedroom with the door firmly shut and he managed to escape by jumping up and pulling down on the door handle so the door swung open.

"But when I took him to the vet staff there said he was absolutely fine and had been letting them stroke him, I couldn't understand it.

"When he went to Zoe's house he seemed to have been behaving but as soon as he got himself settled he turned into an absolute psycho cat.

"Quite often cats will give a small sign as a warning if they don't want you to touch them or before they attack but Bradley gives no warning.

"He is not safe to be in a home because of his vicious attacks but will be much happier in a nice outdoor environment where he will not have to be near people if he doesn't want to be."

Zoe, who has fostered seven cats to date, said she had never experienced anything like Bradley's behaviour before.

Five minutes after picking him up she was driving on the M65 and he escaped from his cat carrier and climbed onto her shoulder before accidentally switching her lights and indicators on and off by jumping around the car.

On Friday evening Bradley bit and scratched her left arm and hand so badly she had to visit Burnley General Hospital the following day for antibiotics and a tetanus jab because the wounds became infected and swelled up.

Andy Richards' injuries from Bradley the cat (Image: Mercury Press)

Despite having full run of the house, the mischievous moggy also ripped carpets in Zoe's lounge and her daughter's bedroom.

She said: "A couple of times I caught him stuck with his paws hanging out of my letter box because he was so determined to escape.

"In the end I had to give him back to Andy because he was just getting too distressed and upset living with me.

"On the way back to Andy's I even duct-taped his cat carrier shut but he still managed to get his paw through the gaps in the mesh, rip the tape and push open the door.

"At the end of the day it is down to the cat needing somewhere to be happy - he will be so much less agitated in a home where he can live outside."

Andy added: "I don't know what has happened to Bradley in his life to make him so frightened of people.

"He must have been abused or mistreated for him to be as nervous as he is now.

"Sometimes cats are able to get over it, but sometimes they never trust people again."